2018 Grant Recipients!Tying into our mission to be a professional development conference "For PE Teachers, By PE Teachers", ALL annual attendants of PhysEd Connections become eligible to receive grants ranging from $500-$1000 to give back to their individual programs. Not only will attending PhysEd Connections improve your practice through attendance, it has the potential to provide financial support to improve the overall capabilities your program has to equip your students to be physically literate individuals making it a priority to be socially, emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy the rest of their lives.

"My professional passion is to encourage my students to be healthy, active members of society throughout their lifetimes by providing them with opportunities to experience a variety of physical activities and learning occasions that support physical literacy." - Amy Heuer

Congratulations Amy Heuer! You are a recipient of a $1000 Phys Ed Connections grant for your Physical Education program at St. Mary's Academy - Light of Christ Catholic School in Bismark, North Dakota.

In the Fall of 2019, Amy's school is dedicating a room in their building to use for a fitness based physical education class. This grant will be used to purchase a set of 36 fitness bars to help jump start her curriculum in this new room.

Amy went into greater detail below on how impactful this grant will be for her students and the overall effectiveness of this new fitness room.

​"Our students will develop their physical and health literacy through the process of developing and implementing fitness and activity performance goals. This equipment will give them a wider range of activities of which to choose to include in their journey towards completing those goals. Our students are only able to work on those goals outside of our school as we do not have any age appropriate fitness equipment. We currently share our weight room with our high school. By providing the class set of fitness bars for our students, they will have the ability to not only plan their fitness goals, but also carry out the activities that will help them reach their goals while in their PE classes." - Amy Heuer

Jennifer StensrudHigh School Physical Education​Austin High School - Austin Public Schools, Austin MN

"My professional passion is to help students find activities they love so they will be able to stay active throughout their life. I try to engage students in a variety of activities that will allow them to have fun while building and maintaining strong relationships." - Jennifer Stensrud

Congratulations Jennifer Stensrud! You are a recipient of a $500 Phys Ed Connections grant for your Physical Education program at Austin High School in Austin, Minnesota.

This grant combined with additional grant funding from her district, will help Jennifer and her colleagues provide appropriate equipment to jump start and enhance her Unified PE course at Austin High School.

In this course Peer Leaders will assist in engagement and modifications to physical activities for students with special needs. The equipment acquired through this grant will enhance both the leaders knowledge of how activities can be changed and modified to include a wide range of abilities as well as her students with special needs ability to learn how to play and engage in new activities in and outside of the school.

"I became a Physical Educator to teach students that fitness is fun and what you learn today you will remember and use tomorrow. Somewhere throughout the generations, the connection between physical activity and fun has been lost and I have a passion to bring back that connection so that my students can grow up and live a healthy lifestyle. I want my students to also have a passion for FUN and for PHYSICAL ACTIVITY and take that passion home! They need to know that physical activity doesn't have to be work or feel like work when you are having so much fun." - Taylor

Congratulations Taylor McAdams! You are a recipient of a $600 Phys Ed Connections grant for your Physical Education program at Jefferson Elementary School in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Taylor is extremely excited to utilize this grant to enhance the physical literacy of her students outside of her classroom walls. She will be using these funds to buy physical education equipment to fill her "Take Home Tubs" resource. She plans to fill six colored tubs for each of her K-5 grade levels with a wide variety of sport, fitness, and recreational equipment for her students to check out to bring home.

Read her amazing story below: ​"Many students in my district (Oshkosh Area School District) and specifically my elementary school are in low income families. These students do not have the ability and/or the opportunity to have physical education related equipment at home. These physical education take home tubs will give students the opportunity to practice skills at home. During the 2017-18 school year, I had students struggling to jump rope. They told me they can't practice at home because they can't afford a jump rope. I told them that we have jump ropes on the recess cart and they can practice then--they followed my instruction and became better at jump rope in a matter of a couple months! But just imagine if that student had access to a jump rope at home as well. The advancement would be even faster! Being a physical educator, my job is to create life long learners, physically literate students, as well as life long lovers of physical activity. I can promote activity at home and the health benefits all day every day, but students without the proper tools will not succeed as quickly. Just imagine the advancement that students could make if they were able to take home a PhyEd tub. Not only would they be making memories with family, they would be finding a love for physical education, physical activity, and a healthy body outside of the school environment. These tubs might be small, but the positive impact that they could have on students could be huge!" - Taylor

"I am blessed to have a profession that gives me the opportunity to globally network with other physical educators to bring new skills, strategies, health concepts and exciting games to my students that, in turn, gives my students opportunities to work interdependently and independently." - Sheri O'Briend

Congratulations Sheri O'Brien! You are a recipient of a $500 Phys Ed Connections grant for your Physical Education program at Viking Elementary School in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota.

Sheri will be utilizing this grant to expand their heart rate monitors resources for additional grade levels to utilize over the next two years. This funding will be just enough to push their budget where it needs to be to add all of 4th grade to the list of grade levels implementing heart rate monitors in their physical education classes. Sheri went into more detail on what this grant will do for her program below:

"This type of heart rate technology will hopefully lead to students being more cognizant of their activity level. Secondly, another objective is for the students begin to set health and fitness achievable goals they are setting and modifying for themselves. Last, by students being exposed to and using fitness technology and related vocabulary, they are further applying physical literacy standards that will hopefully, carry through to the adolescence and beyond." - Sheri

"My goal is to develop a quality Physical Education program that will help all students develop health-related fitness, physical competence, cognitive understanding and positive attitudes about physical activity so that they can adopt a healthy and physically active lifestyle!​" - Joe McCarthy

Congratulations Joe McCarthy! You are a recipient of a $500 Phys Ed Connections grant for your Physical Education program at Meadowview Elementary School in Farmington, Minnesota.

Joe will be utilizing this grant to purchase new helmets, skates, and elbow/knee pads for his physical education program's skating curriculum. This equipment will continue to support his goal of developing physically literate students who will have the knowledge, skills and positive attitude to be physically literate for a lifetime.

"My passion is to empower students on their lifelong journey of working toward what happy and healthy is for them." - Tera Peterson

Congratulations Tera Peterson! You are a recipient of a $165 Phys Ed Connections grant for your Physical Education program at Oak-Land Middle School in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.​Tera will be utilizing this grant to purchase new resources to enhance her Nutrition unit in her Health and Physical Education program. She will use this grant to obtain the Healthy Foods and Portions Bingo set, 5 Minute Fruits and Vegetables Activities, and the My Plate Meal set all from US Games. These resources hope to greatly support her nutrition learning targets and help her students make better life long choices.

"My passion as a physical educator is to engage, equip, and empower students to be physically active as well as physically and health literate individuals. My aim is to provide students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to lead a healthy and active lifestyle." - Sean Ryther

Congratulations Sean Ryther! You are a recipient of a $500 Phys Ed Connections grant for your Physical Education program at Hilltop Primary School in Mound, Minnesota.

Sean will be utilizing this grant to purchase updated equipment that focuses on balancing and coordination for his elementary students. He plans to purchase two low balance beams that will be used throughout several units in his PE program. He plans to implement these beams into his team building unit, adventure challenge unit, gymnastics unit and his after school ninja warrior class.

"Our professional passion at Menomonie H.S. is to promote lifelong learning in the area of health and wellness, as well as guide individuals to be the best version of themselves." - Kimberly Musser

Congratulations Kimberly Musser and Ramie McMahon! You are our 1st recipients of a $1000 Phys Ed Connections grant for the Health and Physical Education program at Menomonie High School in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Kimberly and Ramie along with their colleagues, in the Health and P.E. program, will be utilizing this grant to purchase CPR manikins called "BigRed". The responsive LED technology used in the CPR BigRed LightSaving Manikins mimic blood flow through the body and to the brain, giving students instant visual feedback on their CPR technique. Big Red will be used in all Health classes, our stand-alone CPR and Lifeguarding courses, and all CPR/AED/First Aid staff trainings at Menomonie H.S.

On behalf of the PhysEd Connections team, THANK YOU all grant recipients for attending our conference and applying for the grant you were awarded. We look forward to seeing how your program and students will grow through the grant you were awarded!